General-purpose operating systems such as Linux™ and Windows™ have an extensive set of features, such as file systems, device drivers, applications, libraries, etc. Although general-purpose operating systems may be suitable operating systems for generally stationary computing devices, such as a desktop computer, the general-purpose operating systems may not be suitable operating systems for mobile devices, such as mobile phones, smart phones, and tablet computers. Operating systems that have the features of an embedded or real time operating system, including real time performance, may be more suitable for mobile devices. As the computing power of the mobile devices increases, the mobile devices may be used as standalone devices in mobile environments as well as used with peripheral devices, such as computers, monitors, and projectors, in relatively stationary environments. When mobile devices transition from the mobile environments to the stationary environments or vice versa, the operating systems of the mobile devices may transition from a mobile operating system environment to a general-purpose operating system environment, or vice versa.
In both the mobile environment and the stationary environment, the mobile device may have network connectivity, such as the ability to connect to the Internet or to a private intranet, using a wired or wireless connection. While connected to the internet, a user of the mobile device may create a web session that consists of open websites, webpages, web applications, or other information that was accessed over a network using a uniform resource locator (URL). The user of the mobile device may wish to have the web session stay open, or easily recreate the web session, when changing environments. As an example, a user may be viewing a webpage on the mobile device at home over a wireless home network. While connected to the wireless home network, the mobile device is operating in the general purpose environment. If the user has to leave the home, such as to go to work or run an errand, the user may want to keep the webpage open, or easily reopen the webpage.
When leaving the home, the mobile device may transition from the general-purpose operating environment to the mobile operating environment. In order to reopen the webpage, the user must copy the URL associated with the webpage in the address bar while still in the general-purpose environment. After the mobile device transitions from the general-purpose environment to the mobile environment, the user opens a browser in the mobile environment and pastes the URL in an address bar in the browser in the mobile environment. Copying and pasting functions may be difficult and time consuming using mobile devices. The copying and pasting functions become even more problematic if multiple websites or webpages are open in multiple tabs or multiple browser windows. Further, if the user is running a web-based application, such as an email account, the user does not have an easy way to re-access the email that he or she was viewing. Instead, the user has to login again and reopen the email that he or she was viewing.
Additionally, while the user is navigating through websites and/or entering information in the webpages using a web browser, the configuration of the web browser may change. For example, the user's browser history may change or the user may have entered a new password. When transitioning from one environment to another environment, the web browser that is opened in the other environment does not know any of the configuration changes that were made in the first environment. The user may have to enter the configuration information into the browser in the other environment.